1. Field of the Invention
The present information is related to: an information updating device for updating target object map information for displaying detail information for a plurality of target objects located in a predetermined position, the detail information being about a detail of each of the target objects and being displayed in a manner substantially corresponding to a positional relationship of each of the target objects; a method thereof; a program thereof; and a storing medium storing the program.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been conventionally known arrangements for properly adjusting locatable positions of symbols, characters etc. for showing buildings and the like in displaying a map. Such arrangements are disclosed in, for instance, Document 1: JP-A-9-146529, left column of page 4 to right column of page 9, Document 2: JP-A-11-45262, right column of page 3 to right column of page 5, Document 3: JP-A-8-255256, right column of page 2 to left column of page 3, and Document 4: JP-A-8 292715, right column of page 6 to right column of page 13. Also, there have been known arrangements for generating map data that is used for displaying a map on a display unit or the like. Such arrangements are disclosed in, for instance, Document 5: Japanese Patent No. 3541854, pages 4 to 7, and Document 6: JP-A 8-63575, right column of page 3 to left column of page 4.
In the arrangement disclosed in Document 1, in a state with map data, a symbol, characters, etc. being displayed, when a new symbol and a character pertaining to the new symbol is desired to be displayed, a display area is divided into meshes of a predetermined size. Then, based on an azimuth of the character relative to the symbol, a distance between the symbol and the character, a positional relationship with other graphics, an overlapping degree with other characters, a difference in display color and the like, a fitness for a display position is obtained for each of the meshes, so that an area with the best fitness for display position is selected and displayed as a character display position.
The arrangement disclosed in Document 2 performs a retrieval based on a retrieval criteria set by a user, and map data for a subjected region is inputs. Then, an object to be displayed is selected for the map data. A link and a node each adjacent to the selected object are extracted to determine an intersecting point of an area of the input map data and the link. Then, a node that is closest to the determined intersecting point is obtained, and when the object to be displayed is located at the same position as the node, the object is displayed hierarchically. When the object is desired to be displayed as an icon and the icon cannot be located so as not to overlap with the link and the node having already been displayed, positions of the adjacent node and link are moved.
The arrangement disclosed in Document 3 obtains, when an operation is performed for specifying a graphical element (segment pattern) for locating a character string in a map being displayed, an angle of the segment pattern based on a upper-right coordinate and a lower-left coordinate of the specified segment pattern. Then, the character string is located and output in a direction of the obtained angle.
The arrangement disclosed in Document 4 selects a character string with a predetermined attribute that should be displayed when displaying a bird's-eye view. In a case where, for instance, a symbol attribute formed of a symbol such as a double circle is displayed in preference to a character-string attribute formed of a character string, when a symbol and a character are overlapped, the symbol is displayed. For character strings that have been determined to have the same attribute, the character strings are sorted in a depth direction, and the one located closer to a current position is displayed.
The arrangement disclosed in Document 5 obtains an annotation rectangle to be contained in a subjected building graphic when generating a map drawing. In addition, a morphologic analysis is performed on an annotation character string to extract a word unit having a meaning and a candidate break point is determined. Then, the annotation rectangle and the annotation character string with the candidate break point are compared to determine an annotation location condition including whether to write vertically or horizontally, an inclination of the character string, the number of lines, a line spacing, a character size and the like, and the annotation character string is located in the building graphic.
The arrangement disclosed in Document 6 selects, when generating display map data, shape data and character symbol data that are required to be displayed from a map database, formats of which are then converted to shape data and character symbol data. Then, based on preset priority of types, the pieces of character symbol data are sorted by symbols and names and listed. Display positions of the pieces of character symbol data are determined in the descending order of the priority, and character symbol data that is overlapped with character symbol data with its display position having been determined is judged to be non-displayable and deleted.
However, in the arrangements of Documents 1 to 4 described above, since locatable positions of a symbol and a character are adjusted by performing computation based on symbol information for displaying the symbol and character information for displaying the character, the arrangements possibly become complicated. Further, in the arrangement of Document 5, when the number of characters to be located is large relative to the size of the building graphic for instance, the size of the characters is set so set small that a user might have difficulty to read. Still further, in the arrangement of Document 6, since, for instance, character information that overlaps with character information with its display position having been determined is deleted, when the deleted character information contains a detail that is helpful for a user, proper map information cannot be generated.